Stock thickness...….

[GANGGREEN]

OK, I know this has been covered before, but I have a point and a reason for asking again. I purchased some really spectacular curly maple with the intention of possibly using some or most for muzzleloader stocks. Some of the wood is 10/4 or even 12/4 and 9 or 10" wide, so I can make any muzzleloader style that I'd like from those pieces, but a good bit of it is 2" thick and ranging in width from 7-9". I've measured many of my rifles and quite a few are thinner than 2", but I know that you need at least some wiggle room in a raw blank, so I'm not sure if I can do anything with this stuff or if I should post it on "For Sale or Trade" board to find something that will be or more use to me. I'd presume it will be fine for trade guns, half-stock rifles without a cheekpiece, maybe fowlers, but not for many/most styles of longrifle. Also, I'd presume that the 7" boards are probably a bit narrow, even if you were to cant your pattern on the board before tracing and cutting.

As you can see from the photos (and I realize that it's not planed down or sanded) the boards range from pretty nice curly maple to incredible curly maple. I think it's mostly hard maple, but I need to do some research and learn to identify the wood before making that pronouncement with any confidence. So, once again, before I decide to trade this stuff for thicker wood or for something I need like locks, barrels and other parts, what's the rule of thumb for thickness and width need generally and for specific schools?

That first board is actually 2 1/8" thick and 9 1/2" wide, so I'd think I could likely use it for southern guns. The other 6 in the lower photo are all precisely 2" thick and range from 7-9" wide and 6-10' long.

 

[Flintandsteel]

Too thin for early guns, but later Southern guns would be ok.

 

[GANGGREEN]

The 2.125" would be acceptable for later southern rifles or the 2"? I love southern and Tennessee rifles in flint and the 1820-1830 period or thereabouts anyway and would love to think that I can use some of this because some of it has remarkable curl. The next question becomes, what width would I need for the average southern gun? I'd presume you'd be looking at around 8" between drop at comb and the buttplate, but could you cock the profile of the rifle on the board to do it on a 7" wide plank without the curl looking odd? I'd presume the grain through the wrist would be less of an issue than the up and down aspect of the curl....

Too thin for early guns, but later Southern guns would be ok.

 

[Col. Batguano]

The cheek rest is going to be your biggest concern for that last little bit of width. If you start your layout (looking down vertically) in one corner for the muzzle (the right for a rightie) and then have some cast-off you will gain some thickness, a little bit of toe-in can help too, and then the butt ends back at the right corner. You might gain an additional 1/8" of thickness from the patch box taking up some wood space too.

Some (original) guns laminated an exotic material (like bone or ironwood) on the tip of the cheek rest too. Hard to know if that was a deliberate design element or if they were dealing with a "not quite there" blank issue too.

 

[GANGGREEN]

That's very interesting and much appreciated. I guess it hadn't occurred to me that perhaps half the stock doesn't lie to the right of the middle of the barrel channel and half doesn't necessarily lie to the left. Also an interesting thought regarding a laminated bone cheekpiece. I have a few southern guns that are only 1.75" at the widest spot (the cheekpiece) and have an original halfstock NY gun that's considerably less than that because it doesn't have a cheekpiece. What about trade guns and fowlers? I don't have any trade guns, never have, but I'd presume you could manage that with a 2" blank. I just measured one of my fowlers and it's just under 2" at the widest point (the rear of the lock and sideplate panels) and I'd presume my other fowler is similar (it's in the barn collecting dust right now) but I'd guess you'd want as much extra wood as possible.

The cheek rest is going to be your biggest concern for that last little bit of width. If you start your layout (looking down vertically) in one corner for the muzzle (the right for a rightie) and then have some cast-off you will gain some thickness, a little bit of toe-in can help too, and then the butt ends back at the right corner. You might gain an additional 1/8" of thickness from the patch box taking up some wood space too.

Some (original) guns laminated an exotic material (like bone or ironwood) on the tip of the cheek rest too. Hard to know if that was a deliberate design element or if they were dealing with a "not quite there" blank issue too.

 

[Pete G]

Trade guns were designed to built cheaply. No fancy wood. Fowlers did get fancy.

 

[Sidney Smith]

How about saving this wood for pistol blanks? You could most likely get a decent amount from them. Keep what you want and sell the rest.

 

[GANGGREEN]

That's what I'm trying to figure out. I hoard my nice wood and don't really like to trade or sell it, but if I can't build rifles, it should go to someone for pistols, for hawks, knives or something cool. I do want to build a pistol or two at some point, but I have enough scraps of really nice curly lying around for that already. I'm trying to figure it out soon so I can either post it for sale or trade here or to take it to the local club's rendezvous next month to see how I can do with it.

How about saving this wood for pistol blanks? You could most likely get a decent amount from them. Keep what you want and sell the rest.